The parking lot opens at 6 a.m., as workers put out their signs, and order the homeless out. For as long as I can remember, the lot was just dirt, littered with trash and construction refuse. Those without homes used the lot, protected by the cement freeway underbelly, for shelter. Now, the lot has been paved over, providing parking spaces for commuters to the SOMA district. Every morning, the homeless pack up their belongings in shopping carts and move everything on to the sidewalk. There's furniture, bedding rolls and even a shoe-shine booth. At 5 p.m., when the parking attendants go home, the homeless move everything back, awaiting another day to repeat the routine.

Job decentralization has expanded the boundaries of our megaregion — increasing commute times and greenhouse gas emissions in Northern California. We propose a framework for developing strategies to drive jobs back into centers already served by regional transit.

How the nation emerges from this recession in terms of the structure of its economy, infrastructure, energy supply, and approach to the natural environment will determine our ability to compete and prosper in the 21st century.

Planning efforts to address the Delta’s complex ecosystem and water supply crisis may also greatly enhance the Delta’s open space values.

While housing is down, we know that population growth eventually will create the demand for new homes, rejuvenating employment and investment in the industry.

The desire of President Obama’s new administration and leaders in Congress to undertake serious steps to stem global warming may provide a singular opportunity to make more visible the role rental housing can play in making our country’s infrastructure greener.

San Francisco, one of the most expensive housing markets in the country, was more than double the California median price in the first quarter and more than 350 percent above the national average.

In the face of spiking foreclosure rates, plummeting home values and slow sales, what will draw investors back to the housing market? How will the risk in the housing market be re-priced to attract new capital?

How much energy is spent making sure that new buildings "fit in"! Sometimes we're better off thanks to this design-by-committee. But what we lose is the surprise of the unexpected, the quirky stuff that makes a city special. I agree with Pablo Picasso: "Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing. Good taste is the enemy of creativity."

Telesis' 1942 exhibit, "A Space for Living," inspired the San Francisco Housing Association to expand from housing reform advocacy to a group concerned with city planning overall, renaming itself the San Francisco Planning and Housing Association, which in turn, became SPUR.

The question of how we hold on to the best of a city — architecturally, historically, as a matter of quality of the urban experience and quality of life — is deeply bound to the question of how cities change,and in particular the tension between "preservation" and "development."

Since the recession has lowered the pressure on both sides of the development/preservation equation, this time of inactivity could be devoted to the kind of even-handed planning that would mitigate future battles by evaluating the benefits of both.

There is a cliché that city planning is simply fixing the mistakes of past planners. And yet, we cannot just sit on the sidelines. We have to learn from past mistakes and approach our activism with a sense of humility about all that we can’t know. But still we must act.

These projects are critical to moving San Francisco's city-wide bicycle network towards completion. Better biking infrasturcture will encourage greater use, leading to improvements in mobility, health, livability and reduced emissions.